NEW YORK CITY — Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO) has entered into an agreement with an undisclosed buyer to sell five Manhattan retail properties for $184.5 million. The properties are located at 677–679 Madison Ave., 759–771 Madison Ave., 828–850 Madison Ave., 478-482 Broadway and 155 Spring St. Combined, the properties currently have negative income and a street-level occupancy rate of approximately 30 percent. Vornado is selling the properties in three separate transactions. The sale of the Madison Avenue properties is expected to close in the third quarter, and the sales of the Soho properties are expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — JLL has arranged the sale of Icon Central, a 368-unit, 15-story, mixed-use residential tower in St. Petersburg. Matt Mitchell, Matthew Lawton and Zach Nolan of JLL represented the seller, Related Group, in the transaction. Camden Property Trust acquired the property for $149 million, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Completed in 2019 by Related Group, Icon Central includes about 35,000 square feet of rentable space of ground-floor retail. In July, Tricera Capital acquired the ground floor retail for $11.1 million, as well as the adjoining Union Trust Bank building. Right now, BurgerFi and Watts Dental lease about 7,000 square feet of the property’s retail space. Icon Central’s apartments feature private balconies, stainless steel appliances, kitchen islands, a full-size washer and dryer and electronic key-fob entry. Community amenities include a pool with lounge area, fitness center, sauna and steam room, spa with massage tables and Zen lounge, private clubroom and dining room, a movie theater, game simulator and a rooftop terrace with an outdoor kitchen, dining, seating and firepits. Located at 855 Central Ave., Icon Central is situated within a half-mile of St. Petersburg’s Central Arts District and the Edge District, which have art galleries, museums, …
ORLANDO, FLA. — Property Markets Group (PMG) and Raven Capital Management has secured a $120 million construction loan for the development of Society Orlando, a 26-story multifamily and retail project located at 434 N Orange Ave. in downtown Orlando. Chris Peck and Mark Fisher of JLL arranged the loan through a fund managed by Los Angeles-based CIM Group. PMG was represented internally by Lowell Plotkin, Andrew Warman, Jonathan Blank and Randy Marble. The loan will provide financing for the first phase of the development, which broke ground in 2020. Slated for completion in 2023, Society Orlando’s first phase will include 462 apartments and 33,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Society Orlando will offer a blend of traditional units as well as co-living options. With over 100,000 square feet of amenity space, the community amenities will include a pool deck, coworking lab, gym and fitness studio, entertainment lounges, yoga lawn, craft food and beverage operations, smart package lockers and app-based keys. Society Orlando is part of the Society Living brand, which focuses on primarily market-rate apartments along with making co-living apartments better by making it easier to find good roommates, splitting up the bills and eliminating shared bathrooms. Other Society …
MARION, IOWA — Shive-Hattery is working with the City of Marion on the design of a retail strip center redevelopment across one-and-a-half acres. Cedar Falls, Iowa-based Eagle View Partners and DCI Group Inc. are the developers for the project, which will convert an aging retail center into multifamily space. The first phase of the project, Broad & Main on 7th, will include 42 apartment units atop retail and restaurant space on the ground floor. The second phase, Broad & Main on 6th, will bring an additional 42 units and parking space. A timeline for construction was not disclosed.
LAKE FOREST, CALIF. — Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of Lake Forest Center, a shopping center located at 20761 Lake Forest Drive in Lake Forest. A California-based private family trust sold the asset to a Maryland-based private investor for $5.7 million, or $330 per square foot. The multi-tenant property features 17,244 square feet of retail space. Orbell Ovaness, Ara Rostamian and Peter Xiao of Marcus & Millichap’s Los Angeles office represented the seller and buyer in the deal.
MIAMI — CIM Group and Miami Worldcenter Associates have broken ground on the 78,000-square-foot “Jewel Box” building, one of the last retail components within the $4 billion Miami Worldcenter project. Slated for completion in the second quarter of 2022, the Jewel Box building will feature two levels of retail space. The property will also include a rooftop overlooking the development’s World Square, a 20,000-square-foot public plaza and park. Located at 150 NE Eighth Street, the Jewel Box is situated directly west of the upcoming citizenM boutique hotel and north of apartment tower known as Bezel at Miami Worldcenter. Miami Worldcenter is a 27-acre, master-planned mixed-use project in downtown Miami. More than 150,000 square feet of retail space at Miami Worldcenter has already been completed, with another 130,000 square feet currently under construction and nearing delivery.
BRENTWOOD, TENN. — JLL has arranged the $24.9 million sale of Mallory Corners, an Aldi-anchored, 70,000-square-foot shopping center in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood. Jim Hamilton, Brad Buchanan and Taylor Callaway of JLL represented the seller, Longpoint Realty Partners, a Boston-based real estate private equity firm. Pine Tree, a Chicago-based retail specialized real estate company, represented the buyer, a state pension fund. Located on 6.5 acres at 1701 Mallory Lane, Mallory Corners is situated 16 miles from downtown Nashville. Built in 1995 and acquired by Longpoint Realty Partners in 2018, Mallory Corners is a fully leased center with a variety of tenants, including Barnes & Noble, Play it Again Sports, AAA, Hoover Paint Store and Brilliant Sky Toys & Books. The property is shadow anchored by Costco.
CHICAGO — Illuminarium Experiences, an experiential entertainment company, has unveiled plans to open an Illuminarium at Chicago’s Navy Pier. The 32,000-square-foot entertainment venue, which combines projections and soundscapes to create virtual reality-like exhibits, will be situated inside the former Crystal Gardens venue. This is the fourth Illuminarium location announced in the U.S., following Atlanta, Miami and Las Vegas. The company plans to add dozens of its immersive experience venues in major cities across the globe over the next five years. In Chicago, architecture firms Rockwell Group and Perkins & Will have begun the design of the new location. Illuminarium plans to invest more than $30 million in the redevelopment of Navy Pier. Construction is expected to begin in early to mid-2022, with completion slated for one year after. At Navy Pier, Illuminarium’s inaugural spectacle will be “Wild: a Safari Experience.” The concept showcases Africa’s most exotic animals in their natural habitats via cinematic content shot by RadicalMedia. Following “Wild” will be “Spacewalk,” a journey through the solar system. Viewers will experience what it’s like to walk on the surface of the moon and Mars. Additionally, guests will enjoy The Bar at Illuminarium, designed and developed by the LAB at Rockwell …
BERTHOUD, COLO. — NAI Shames Makovsky has arranged the sale of a retail property located at 1111 Mountain Ave. in Berthoud, a small town near Fort Collins. 1111 Mountain Ave LLC sold the asset to 655 South Boulder LLC for $3.1 million. 7-Eleven occupies the 4,067-square-foot building on a triple-net-lease basis. Paul Cattin and Samuel Cohen of NAI Shames Makovsky represented the seller, while Robert Edwards of Blue West Capital represented the buyer in the deal.
By Terrison Quinn, Managing Principal, SRS Real Estate Partners Despite a recent uptick in vacancy from 4.07 percent to 4.5 percent and a softening of rents from $32.99 to $32.55 per square foot, Orange County remains Southern California’s tightest retail market. And retail investors remain bullish for good reasons. Theaters, gyms and other uses shuttered by the pandemic have reopened to greater-than-expected customer demand. In fact, several health club chains have reported they are back to pre-COVID membership numbers. A multitude of entertainment groups and theaters are also communicating positive messages about demand and expressing an interest in expanding. Theater operators have generally said their limitation is more related to content than demand. The reopening success is even more obvious in categories like grocery stores and drive-thru restaurants. This is apparent in nearly every Orange County city as parking lots are visibly impacted and cars continue to spill out of fast food drive-thru lanes. Most notably, Amazon Fresh is aggressively opening new stores, while fast feeders like Raising Cane’s, Chick-fil-A and Starbucks can’t seem to open new stores fast enough. Sit-down restaurants have also experienced a resurgence in demand with many national and regional groups setting record same-store sales. Clearly, …